I have a lot of seeds, but still may buy some of the cucumbers that Jennifer has been talking about.

The weather is nice today, 62 windy degrees. It looks like a good day to go brush hog an area that I plan on planting a green manure crop on. I hope to improve more area to plant food on if it becomes necessary. The place I brush hog today will be for a fall crop, it will take that long to grow the biomass that I need to till into the soil.

Thanks for starting the thread, Amy.

From the other thread....

We have talked to the neighbor. It's been brought up in our neighborhood meetings. He does well with keeping his dog at home for awhile and then gets careless again. We have neighbors who won't walk on that part of the neighborhood because of his dog. I've never seen his dog be violent with people, but he's a large pitbull. It's not that they are meaner dogs, it's just that their jowls are so big and powerful. I feel a little scared of them after another neighbor's pitbull attacked Kane during one of our walks so many years ago. This dog wants to obsessively sniff Josi while we're on walks and she hates it. The neighbor's little boy is about 9 and the boy is always pulling on him. It just makes me nervous. The dog in unneutered as well.

Once when he was out during our walks and wouldn't stop sniffing Josi, the neighbor asked if she was in heat. Like his sniffing was OUR fault. No. I told him absolutely not. We spay and neuter our pets.

Anyway....

After work, I decided to work indoors. It's not super cold out, but it's so windy. I don't need to be out unnecessarily. That wind seems to cause sinus infections--sinus headaches and congestion in my ears and behind my eyes. If I NEED to be out, I'll risk it, but I can work on indoor projects instead if there's not a specific thing that must be done outdoors. I cleaned out my baking cabinet. Got rid of very expired stuff and reorganized.

I'm also making food for a thing I have to go to tonight.

About to go out for a bit and feed the chickens and shop cats.

Nothing interesting to talk about today really.

I got out and brush hogged about 10 acres, I would like to brush hog another 30 + acres before nesting season for the birds, but I don't have a lot of faith that I will be able to do that. I will be tied up prepping land for planting, and the bank account and I can only be stretched so far.

At this point my gardens are in fair shape, but there is still plenty of time for winter grass and weeds to grow in areas you don't want them to grow.

Wind and sinus problems .................hmmmm ........... I asked my family doctor if riding my bike, where I constantly have at least a 10 to 15 mph wind in my face could cause sinus problems. And I did not get an answer. And especially cold winter wind.

It seems the more I ride the bike, the more sinus problems I have. And I think it was chronic sinus infection that led to my pneumonia last August.

I need to find a new doctor. But I've been going to this one for years, finding a new one is not an easy thing to do, and I could be jumping from the frying pan to the fire.

Lynn, I have had what I would call sinus problems all my life, and I can say that cold wind does not help me, and it is worse with pollen, dust, or exhaust fumes in it. When I was young we called it hay fever. I used a lot of Dristan when I was a kid and work in the hay fields, now I use a lot of benadryl, flonase, albuterol and/or spiriva. I find if I don't keep my flair ups under control, it take forever to get rid of the crud. It seems that the past few years have gotten worse for me on my breathing issues. I keep brandy to help cut the crud in my throat, a 1/5 use to last about 3 or 4 years, I am not sure the last 1/5 will even make it a year, if I cant keep somewhat opened up I may as well through my CPAP machine away.

I am no doctor, but I would advise you to find a doctor that is willing to help you, my guess is the problem will get worse as you age.

Mucinex to thin the mucus and bring it out of your lungs. We are currently in cedar pollinating season. My nose had dripped constantly. Try a netti pot or a bottle of saline spray to flush the pollen and dust out. I did that and then sprayed with flonase and it helped a lot.

We took my electric scooter to Mohawk park yesterday. Half the city was there. There's an old paved road at Oxley Nature center that was able to travel for a coulple of hours. Not the time of day for bird watching, but enjoyable outing. We did see 3 deer and an armadillo.

I take a Singulair between 5 and 7 PM each day and often use the saline spray, I find that both help me breathe.

We feed the wildlife most days between 4:00 and 5:00 PM. On the 12 th and 13 th it was cold and we did not feel like getting out, so on the 14th we fed a little extra, but no bucks showed up ( we normally have 4 doe and 4 bucks each ), but on the 14th the doe were unhappy and fighting. Madge said that it must have been the wrong time of the month, but anyway 2 of the bucks showed last night, and maybe if the giris cool down the men will come back home.

I got parts of the wildlife, north, and south garden tilled today, and almost all of the brush hogging done ( that I want done at this time), I am leaving several acres for wildlife cover. I could have finished if I had not lost a part off the tractor.

I bought some Parisian Gherkin F1 seeds today, they look like small cucumbers, I have never grown any of them before, but thought that being that we are making all kinds of room, we may as well try a few of these.

I have plenty of space ready for onions also, but I am unsure about what kind of plants will be available, and the price. I grew Spanish onions from seed one year, and I saw that walmart had the Walla Walla onion seeds, but I don't want to go that route. I will grow a few bulbing onions no matter the cost if I can get them.

Just a rant about those ol WW I and II Victory gardens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBg1ND5X3tA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2fS7VNc-v4

Yep , better get with it.

Rick

Jet Setter seed is in!

Just waiting on the bunching turnips, herbs and flowers!

New SCOBY is in too.

Hazelinok what are bunching turnips? Thats new for me - i usually plant sevin top just for the greens

farmgardenerok, they are small turnips--salad turnips. They are a little sweet and crunchy and good on a salad. The ones I'm trying this year are from Botanical Interests. Here's a link. salad turnip

I've ordered from other places too, but am excited to try these.

We had heavier rain than we needed this morning. The hard rain only lasted about 10 or 15 minutes, but that was longer than I wanted on freshly tilled soil because it is too easy to lose my top soil, but I run that risk every year. Most of the ponds and lakes in this area are in good shape for this time of the year, we still have a lot of rainy season left, and looking at the weather report I am expect more rain over the nest week, and maybe some strong wind.

I have never grown, or even heard of bunching turnips before the last few days. My turnips normally survive the winter, but I did not have anything survive this winter other than onions and garlic, and they look terrible now. I would like to learn more ways to use Egyptian walking onions, its a shame not to get the full use of such a survivor.

Early settlers did not have bulbing onions. They grew the walking onions and used them sort of like we do bulbing onions. I think they are stronger, so you don't need as much. The leaves are tough but they could season soup. I bet you could put a whole one in a pot of soup and remove it before eating. I assume if you chopped them into small pieces you wouldn't notice them being tough. Maybe when they cook they soften. I loved growing them, but they annoyed Ron for some reason.

I love salad turnips. I don't eat turnip greens, but Ron likes them, so it works well.

You got a lot done yesterday, Larry. Are you feeling better?

Amy, I am feeling much better. I am not as tough as I was years ago. I get sicker more quickly, and stay sick longer, but I guess most everyone is like that. If I can keep my lungs cleared up, I have very few problems. I tell my doctor, that as long as I am breathing diesel smoke I can keep going. That is not completely true, but I do love being on a tractor.

I looked up some bunching turnip seed as well as salad turnips. I would like to grow some, but I already have a few pounds Purple Top, and Barkant turnip seeds. We are blessed with more seeds than we can care for.

Waking up to gentle rainfall was just lovely.

We didn't get much, but it was a nice rain even so.

Larry, you could get a small pack of the salad turnips and plant them in containers close to your house. If y'all eat salads, planting them close would make it super easy to grab a couple when you make the salads.

I'm trying to stay focused on simplicity. It's so hard when there's so many things to grow.

At some point it's very possible we'll need to drive to Oregon this spring or summer. I just need to keep it all simple.

It's also becoming apparent to me, that I need to stay firm on not getting more pets. I'll get chickens, but they're the easiest to care for. I say this now, but 10 minutes ago, I was thinking about how I need pet bunny. LOL

It's likely that Ethan will be moving to Oregon, which will mean trips to Oregon for me. Just thinking about how I'm going to manage all of my pets (with their special needs), is overwhelming. If this is my life, then once these pets cross, I'll need to have one pet only. One pet would be easy to arrange care for on my trips to Oregon.

Rick can handle the gardens.

My neighbors can handle the chickens.

It's the high maintenance dog and cats that are the issue.

Anyway, simplicity in the garden this year.

I restarted my kombucha tonight. THIS is one thing I need to stay up with. And my sprouts. I ordered more sprouting seeds. I did this for years and then just stopped a couple of years ago.

The fire cider is looking nice. And the sauerkraut that I started a couple of days ago, is looking and smelling right.

I'm really looking forward to making more fermented pickles too.

My herb focus has been decided: calendula, chamomile, tulsi, valerian, and rosemary. Those are the 5.

I'll grow the others too, but study those 5.

Jennifer, I like your idea. It is hard for me to remember the containers I have on a rack along the deck. I also have a new place tilled up out in the edge of the pasture that will make a pretty good spot to plant more food, but the containers will be the best spot for salad supplies, and a good place to try the Happy Frog potting soil.

I bought more seeds a while ago, I went by the Co-op and just had to stop ( the Co-op is like a candy store to me), anyway I bought 2.6# of Florida Broad leaf mustard seeds. I don't find the mustard seeds in bulk as often as I do turnip seeds, but at $4.00 a pound I can use it in a decoy garden and try to draw the wildlife away from the house. That decoy garden does not work as well as I would like for it to work, but I have plenty of seeds to plant one.

We got an inch of rain. Mesonet does not show anywhere near me with that much, but that's what my weather station said. Even the creek was high, which suggests heavy rain north of me.

Jennifer, I'm sorry your son is moving to Oregon. I'm sad my 2nd son moved to Stillwater, and that's not that far. My lifelong friend's oldest daughter is living in Washington.

I'm glad you're better, Larry.

We got some rain. looks like half an inch according to the neighbor's weather station. Not a lot, but a little works for the moment. I'd rather have a half inch every so often than several inches all at once.

I'm on a binge to plant all the older seeds, if only to clear them out of my seed box. So this year I'm planting everything 2019 and older, then next year I'll clear out 2020-2021. I've been hoarding seed for so long for my "maybe one day garden", so now it's time to see what's still good. Cliff's buddy is supposed to be coming down to remove the metal from the barn. We don't really need it and I don't know that I really want chickens right now, and the barn really isn't in a good spot since it's behind the shed. So we're geting rid of the barn & that'll be my new garden space. Which might be good since it was at one point a barn, so I'm hoping the dirt there is better than the sand in the rest of the property.

I love your old seed plan, Jen.

I sorta did something like it with my cool season stuff in the fall.

I also love that your property is transforming to how you envision it.

Amy, thanks. I'm not thrilled that he is moving so far away. But, he has to live his life. Who knows....maybe I'll live out my golden years in Oregon. It would be fun to garden there.

I got my Mom to the hospital for her surgery early this morning and got home about an hour ago. (and have been wasting time using the TicToc cat sorting hat on all of my cats. LOL! Juno is in Hufflepuff, Finbar in Ravenclaw, and Diana in Gryffindor. Haven't gotten Sturgeon yet.)

Mom is doing well. My sister is doing second shift now.

My zinnia seed came in today.

I have a Dr. Appt tomorrow morning and then will go to work and check on Mom in the early afternoon. My sister should have her home by then if all goes as planned.

Nothing too exciting to talk about.

I'll probably be staring seed in about a week or so!

Hi y’all. I haven’t been posting much. I fell and have been recovering. I bought onions last week and still haven’t planted them out.

Sorry about your fall, Kim! Hugs to you!

My onions won't be delivered for another month. What varieties did you get?

My Botanical Interests order is supposed to be delievered today. I'm still waiting. The last thing (other than the onions) is the Valerian seed from Mountain Rose.

Kim, I am you fell, I hope you heal soon.

We have not done much the past few days. Matter of fact we try not to do too much in one day because it makes us too tired. We are trying to really cut back on shopping at the big box stores because of so much walking being involved. I do much better shopping at the Co-op, Ace Hardware or the dollar store, or online. We went to Mena Arkansas today for a family thing. I told Madge that I would like to stop an Atwoods on the way out of town to see if they had seeds and onion plants I was looking for. We bought a few seeds, but they did not have what I wanted. I will just wait till they come locally, I can just pick them up at the front of a small store then.